


A smuggler, a Jedi and a bounty hunter walk into a forest...

by Perspicacia



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Adi Gallia was Luke's Master and if they're not in the fic it's important for me, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, BAMF Leia Organa, Cameo by Chewbacca and Plo Koon, Gen, Jedi Knight Leia Skywalker, Let's just say Palpatine had a sudden heart attack ok?, Plo Koon was Leia's Master
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-06 19:19:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12217278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Perspicacia/pseuds/Perspicacia
Summary: And all of this, the exhaustion, the rain, the people trying to kill them would have been nothing, if Han Solo hadn't been the biggest trial she had ever faced.Jedi would Fall, for a chance of shutting that man up.He had complained, grunted, told the worst jokes in the galaxy and insulted almost everything she held dear, and always without really trying, just by putting his big foot in his mouth.





	A smuggler, a Jedi and a bounty hunter walk into a forest...

**Author's Note:**

  * For [JediMasterJaina](https://archiveofourown.org/users/JediMasterJaina/gifts).



> All my thanks to the very noce mod that came to my help with beta!

Leia wasn’t really impressed by this region of the moon. Since they arrived here, there had been rain, rain, more rain and a putrid moor with even more rain…Also, people trying to kill them, but that part had become so customary that she wasn't exactly surprised anymore. Twenty-five years after the end of the Clone Wars, Jedi business was slightly less lethal but that didn’t mean that a lot of warlords, criminals, demented madmen and various Dark Siders didn’t think a Jedi’s scalp was a nice notch on their belt.

What posed a more pressing problem was that their three successive missions were wearing her ragged. There had been the assassination attempt against Senator Bana Breemu where she had only slept fourteen hours in almost six days, then some difficult negotiations in the Outer Rim where her blue lightsaber had seen far too much action, and finally a conjoined mission with Master Secura and her almost ready for trial Padawan, Dev Sibwarra.

And now this Sith-damned moon and the bounty hunters pursuing them. This was supposed to be a simple mission; a smuggler named Han Solo had contacted the Judicials, about two Coruscant weeks ago. He had proof that the Hutt he was working for was running a slaver's ring.

“Spice is fine,” he had confessed on the message, very pale and determined, something hard in the line of his mouth, “but I won’t take part in slavery.” At that part, there had been a mournful sound in the background that the computers had identified as Shyriiwook, the Wookie language.

Speed was important: Solo’s information would only be good for the time it took the slavers to move their victims, and the Judicials had contacted the Order, which had sent the closest Knight: Leia.

Ten minutes after they had made contact, half the space-port had exploded and someone, several someone, were shooting at them. Leia and Solo had been separated from his Wookie first mate, she had lost half her supplies and almost an ear. Leia had killed two bounty hunters who hadn’t given her much choice, then she had taken Solo and they ran.

After three more communications with the Judicials that had all resulted in the bounty hunters finding them, Leia finally relented; there was a mole in the Judicial service, and they were far too deep into Wild space to find a way to contact the Temple outside of the Judicials. After two weeks in the wilderness of the dampest moon she had ever seen, she was beyond ready for this mission to be over. Frugal life or not, Jedi appreciated the wonders of a fresher and warm water like everybody else.

With a sigh, she tried to close her cowl better around her head against the chill of the cave, she closed her eyes and….

“Knight Skywalker.”

And all of this, the exhaustion, the rain, the people trying to kill them would have been nothing, if Han Solo hadn't been the biggest trial she had ever faced.

Jedi would Fall, for a chance of shutting that man up. He had complained, grunted, told the worst jokes in the galaxy and insulted almost everything she held dear, and always without really trying, just by putting his big foot in his mouth.

“Not to be difficult, but I’m not sure the lotus position and levitating off the ground for the third night in a row will help us. I would prefer you to be, you know, awake when it’s your turn to guard the cave.”

“Once again, Captain, the Force is a better warning system that all the electronics in the galaxy. While meditating I can sense our opponents quicker if they're closing in on our position.”

“Ah the Force! If the Force was so mighty, you would have tossed them halfway across the town when they attacked the first time.”

“The Force is everything but I, as every living being, am only an imperfect conduct.”

“So they sent me a sub-par Jedi?”

“They sent you the closest Jedi and I will guide you to safety, with the help of the Force.”

“I knew I should have tried my chances with the Mandalorians. They’re not so big on slavery either. And they have a big No on mystical nonsense.”

“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” She tried to derail him, because they'd had this conversation three times already. There was something about this man that made her forget all careful lessons about negotiations and how to handle civilians that Master Koon had imparted on her. How she wished he was there with them!

“The rain is too noisy.”

“You sleep on a starship and I’ve seen it: there is no way the Falcon’s motors aren’t making tenfold the noise of a waterfall.”

“It’s soothing, ok? Now, I’m only thinking that the rain will stop us from hearing the bounty hunters’ arrival. How can you be so calm?”

She evaded the question with a sharp smile, after all it had been years since she had been so agitated, and simply tossed him a ration. He had terrible manners that would make Uncle Obi-Wan blanch, but at least he didn’t speak with his mouth full and perhaps his sleepless state was simply hunger. He had pretended to be too tired for food when they had stopped hiking, but she knew he was as concerned as she was about the number of rations.

“Eat. Sleep. Tomorrow will be long.”

And, miracle of miracles, for once he obeyed her.

Two days after, Aurra Sing found them while the sun was still young, just when they had left the cover of trees for a moment.

“When I reach the other side of the clearing, come on across,” were almost Leia’s last words. Halfway, only a last quarter second warning and a Force jump took her outside the blast-zone of the first grenade and two seconds after that, she was using her lightsaber to parry a volley of blaster fire. Sing apparently didn’t think Leia truly dangerous: Leia could see her on the other side of the clearing, shooting two blaster pistols, using her knees to keep her swoop-bike pointing in Leia’s direction. It was the young Jedi’s chance: she had always been terrible at perceiving menace at long distances and had Sing shot her with a rifle, she would have had insufficient warning.

Automatically she dodged another discharge of fire and then in a big splash of light, she deflected two more shots. Solo was at the limits of her conscience, his Force presence tight and concentrated and not moving. What was he waiting for?

Defence had been her weakness younger, until her Master had asked Uncle Obi-Wan to change his stance about not implicating himself in her and Luke’s training, and to tutor her in Soresu. She was deeply happy about that in that instant; tired as she was, the tight blade work and the sparse movements were minimizing the risks of getting killed in the first seconds of engagement.

She heard Sing yell something, probably a taunt, but it had started to rain, again, and the sound was lost. It didn’t matter. She had no intention of being one more Jedi fallen victim to that women and she needed all of her focus. Aurra Sing was a known Jedi killer, a Fallen one, a Darksider, and she had murdered Knights with far more experience than Leia. It was really not the time for banter.

Another volley of shots and then, the burn of a shot almost touching her shoulder, and an explosion.

And coming from _behind_ her! Solo had shot, absolutely precise in a way she didn’t think him capable of, and hit some vital parts of the swoop-bike. Aurra Sing had just the time to jump off and then she was on foot in the high grass, the advantage of her vehicle lost, drawing the red blade that had already killed so many Jedi. There was only the sound of the rain and the angry humming of their two sabers for an instant, their gazes locked, then with a ferocious battlecry, Leia leapt, switching her form into Plo Koon’s Ataru, her favourite form. She started to draw heavily on the Force and she felt her adversary doing the same. Sing charged forward too and they clashed in the middle of the clearing, blue against red, dark against light.

Solo, smart man, didn’t shoot again: they were moving so fast now he could have easily hit Leia instead of the bounty hunter. Their blades locked and left a scorching holes in the soil, only to withdraw again. Fast-paced, the combat was violent and only a somersault kept Leia from getting cut in two by a particularly vicious sai tok strike.

Parry, dodge, leap, she lost herself in the Force, becoming the hum of her saber, becoming the light of the dawn, becoming every drop of rain, becoming Solo’s fierce determination to not abandon her, becoming even Aurra Sing’s thirst for Jedi blood.

And when she had become the moment, in a second of crystal clarity, Leia struck. In a reverse movement she cut Sing’s hand, disarming her, and in the same strike, she also cut the antenna sticking out of the bounty hunter’s head. Without hesitating, Leia used the disorientation of the other woman as the bio-computer in her head crashed from the loss of the antenna: she followed it with a violent punch and when Sing fell to her knees, Leia powered down her saber and using it as a club, she knocked out her opponent.

Not a very graceful move, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

“Captain Solo?”

“Here.” And here he was, cautious when he sidestepped the unconscious body.

“Are you hurt?”

“Am I hurt? You were the one playing with the crazy chick and her plasma sword!” His voice was almost hysterical, but he touched her shoulder gently and he was radiating concern through the Force. His eyes were really pretty, she thought for a second and she opened her mouth, not knowing what she would say. Just at that moment, they heard the whine of motors.

“Take cover under the trees, quick!” But her fear was useless; when they saw the ship, it had the markings of the Jedi Order on the side, and on the open ramp, she saw Chewbacca, Master Koon and Uncle Obi-Wan.

Ten minutes later, Aurra Sing was in stun cuffs and Plo Koon applying bacta on her head where Leia had stuck her, her stump already bandaged. Chewbacca was inspecting a protesting Han Solo as if he were a cub, and Leia was, with a groan that would not have been unsurprising in a porn holomovie, drinking her second cup of hot, bitter, perfect caff and listening to her uncle:

“Your father and Luke made contact one day ago. The complex that Chewbacca indicated to us was still full of slavers and their victims. The operation is a success.”

“If you don’t count the fact that Chewbacca was left without protection and found a way to bring you the intel without my help when Captain Solo and I were playing hide and seek in this Sith-damned forest.”

“Well, it certainly wasn’t the original plan, but the slaves are free. I daresay the Force guided you when you chose to run that way. All the bounty hunters followed you and our Wookie friend was free to find his way offworld to contact us directly. We picked up three lost bounty hunters searching for you, all half delirious with hunger and regretting to have set foot in this forest, and Sing was the last one.”

He kissed her forehead, his almost white beard tickling her skin.

“And now, my dear, I have dry clothes for you and the fresher is packed with the nicest soap your mother could provide for our little rescue mission. And plenty, plenty of warm water.”

Leia groaned again in bliss.

 

**End.

 

 

 


End file.
